He has obviously had a terrible time with the loss of his wife & Mum and good on him for keeping in great shape as an outlet.Could understand him wanting to do some sparring if he is into boxing training but deciding to fight people is another matter.It's either going to be a bit of a cynical circus with the betting company using him or someone is going to rearrange his face.Not sure why a 38 yo multimillionaire with a great sporting reputation would put himself up for that.

My take on it is that he has some mental health issues, possibly fighting depression and Boxing and training is his release and therapy. Lot's of sportsmen and women struggle when the fitness routine and daily banter with team mates isn't there after retirement. It's incredibly isolating particularly since he has also lost his partner.

There's no reason to suspect he is not heavily involved in bringing up his kids and sometimes you need to help yourself before you can help others.

The only question I have is whether he needs to turn pro. In any event I think its less about him needing money and more about him trying to find a release and purpose post football.

Good luck to him, he's been more open about his problems in the media than many who have gone on to suffer and this can only be a good thing for him and others in the same boat.

what i would say is , yep he's going to be up against it , but good luck to him. dont shoot a man down for trying to better himself. thats being a hater. With regards to his age , they are not going to throw him in with Usyk or marco huck straight off he will be matched accordingly , and they we see how far he can go. also crusierweights generally peak a lot later , johnny nelson being a prime example . his goals wont to be to win a world title , maybe a southern area , or a british, and if he does that it will be a success﻿

Russ of the BML
3:09 Wed Sep 20Re: Rio Ferdinand to announce start of boxing career

I find this odd.

He looks in great shape and I wouldn't be surprised if he has achieved that by doing boxing training. That may be where he has got the interest from?

If he's started sparring and found himself to be pretty handy then with some proper training and real focus he could be half decent.

He may have always wanted to be a boxer and now has his opportunity so is taking it?

But there's something about this just smacks of being centre of attention. The bloke's got three kids and to become good enough to be a pro you need to be training for lots of hours in the day. Really have to focus.

Surely his focus has to be on them?

Doe she have the hunger? I always thought much of the hunger for going in a ring and getting hit was that if you didn't do that you'd be working in a factory or a building site.... Or have nothing.

He's got millions in the bank. So what's his incentive? Why put your kids through seeing their old man getting beaten up?

He doesnt seem to take criticism well. Like when people called him out on Twitter for saying he was training at 5am they pointed out it was dark at 5am at the time and he used the old “it was just a joke” thing. Seen him do that a few times on there when caught out/criticised.

If you can’t take a joke on the internet how you gonna take a punch in the face?

He says he wants something to focus on, but isn't he a single parent to 3 young children, plus he does his fashion stuff, punditry and newspaper columns etc.? That's not enough? Never really liked the bloke, he lives in a fantasy world, but hey, good luck to him.